12-14-12 - I just returned from leading a retreat in
the Alps of Switzerland. There is a lovely sangha developing there and
they wanted to go back and use ZMBM as the text. One of the great
advantages is that we could have the English and the French versions
available. We had a wonderful retreat, this being my fourth year. A small
photo and poem is attached, which I sent with a message to my home sangha.
(see below)

Today, Sunday, was our final day of retreat. Turning
things around, I presented the participants with two poems by the Zen poet
Ryokan (1758-1831), both in French. Rather than presenting my dharma talk
in English and being translated, I asked the group to translate the poems
back to me in English and then teach me what they had to say. Here is the
final short poem and a few brief comments that reflect a small bit of what
emerged.

In my begging bowl
I have mixed cut flowers
Violets and dandelions
I offer them respectfully
to the Buddhas of the three worlds

The poet speaks of his begging bowl in which he would
typically receive nourishment. It is now a vessel for offering a gift. In
it we find cut flowers, not beautiful arranged bouquets. This mixture
includes both violets and dandelions—beautiful and ordinary, cultivated
and weed, sweet and bitter—all parts included. This is what the poet
offers the Buddhas.

Like the poet with his mix of flowers, we can offer the
jumble of our many parts, just as we are, without apology. We have the
choice to avow who and what we are and come forward wholeheartedly, or
remain contained in the tangle of past conditioning and karma. Making such
an offering—bitter, sweet, ordinary and beautiful—is a very respectable
offering, worthy of the Buddhas of the past, present and future. May we
continually make this radical choice for the benefit of all beings.

With a warm farewell from these cold mountains,

Flint

P.S. This small bowl, passed down from Sophie's
grandmother, contains an orchid that had been broken from its stem in
transit to the retreat. It rests on a copy of Suzuki Roshi's calligraphy
for "beginner's mind."